Amar'e Stoudemire probably won't be back on Wednesday.

The word last week was that Amar'e Stoudemire hoped to return from his back injury in time for Wednesday's game against the Nets. It sounded as if he'd be ready to come back sooner, but playing both ends of the upcoming Tuesday-Wednesday back-to-back seemed too stark a welcome. Now it appears Stoudemire won't even be ready for that second game. Look at these two tweets twat by Howard Beck this afternoon:

Tyson Chandler is a go for Tues game vs. Boston. Amare Stoudemire is not. He's also highly unlikely for Weds game vs Nets.

Stoudemire's earliest return looks like Friday (at Cleveland) or Sunday (at Atlanta), depending on how his week goes.

Well, at least that's good (and expected) news about Tyson. Bummer about Amar'e, but of course, we wouldn't want him to rush back onto the court and risk re-bulging that disc or whatever. We need all them discs firmly in their...slots (drives?) for the postseason. I loathe injuries.